![]() ![]() Jonathan didn’t have his whole life ahead of him. xD But the fact is, all the usual platitudes about “having your whole life ahead of you” which we employ to soothe angsty young adults weren’t true in Jonathan’s case. Is this a story about a thirty-year-old man moaning that life has already passed him by? Yes, it is. And the movie only got better from there. “Why can’t you stay twenty-nine? Hell, you still feel like you’re twenty-two! Turn thirty, 1990–BANG! You’re dead! What can you do?” With that line alone, I was hooked. The music and lyrics are a frenetic mess, giving the illusion of purposeless chaos, but carefully calibrated to create that special brand of desperation which anyone at the wrong end of young adulthood knows only too well. I identified with his crippling sense of failure when confronted with the realities of adult life, coupled with his overwhelming desire to prove himself as an artist. “30/90” instantly endeared me to Jonathan. As Miranda puts it, Tick, Tick… Boom! aims to show us “the world according to Jonathan Larson.” Even when we cut away from the auditorium to the “real life” scenes where Jonathan interacts with his family and friends, we see them through the lens of Jonathan’s imagination. We understand instantly that we are being told this story by Jonathan himself. ![]() This framing device of the “performance” sets the tone for the entire film. We open with Andrew Garfield sitting at a piano in a crowded auditorium and belting out the introductory song, “30/90,” comically hamming up his (very real) frustration and anxiety about turning thirty and having nothing to show for it. Ergo, the movie is framed as a live performance. Jonathan Larson used to sit at a piano and perform these numbers with very little adornment, giving audiences a raw, unfiltered glimpse into his mental landscape. One of the best features of Miranda’s adaptation is the way it leans into Tick, Tick… Boom’s original format as a one-man show. It is impossible for me to exaggerate how much I loved this movie. Now, in the capable hands of Lin-Manuel Miranda (a huge Jonathan Larson fan), Tick, Tick… Boom! has finally gotten the film adaptation it deserves. After his death, when the success of Rent sparked a new interest in all things Jonathan Larson, Tick, Tick… Boom! was adapted into an off-Broadway musical. Jonathan originally performed it as a one-man show, singing all the songs himself. A “portrait of the artist as a young man,” if you will. Tick, Tick… Boom! is an autobiographical drama. These new songs became the basis of Tick, Tick… Boom! This time, he wasn’t writing about space travel or futuristic dystopias, but about the very personal, very intimate experience of baring your creative soul only to be rejected. Finally, Jonathan sat down and poured his frustration at not being heard into a new set of songs. For eight years, his appeals fell on deaf ears. Young Jonathan Larson was convinced Superbia could be his big break if Broadway would only give him a chance. As you can imagine, a musical retelling of 1984 wasn’t exactly calculated to appeal to Broadway influencers. He died of an aneurysm at age 35, hours before Rent’s opening night.īut before this tragedy, before he ever conceived Rent, Jonathan Larson was working on a very different musical, a futuristic space opera based on George Orwell’s 1984, which he called Superbia. Tragically, Jonathan Larson never lived to see Rent become a smash hit. Jonathan Larson was the real-life creator of Rent, a wildly successful musical about impoverished artists in New York City during the AIDS crisis. If you’re a Broadway fan, this may sound familiar. It’s set in New York City in the 1990s and plays out against the somber backdrop of the AIDS crisis. Tick, Tick… Boom! is the story of Jonathan Larson, a young, unknown composer desperate to get the attention of the Broadway elite. It’s not hard to follow once you start watching, I swear! I’ll try to explain it as simply as I can without scaring everybody away. ![]() Tick, Tick… Boom! has a fairly complicated premise, at least on paper. So when I heard about the new Netflix musical Tick, Tick… Boom!, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and starring Andrew Garfield, I knew I had to check it out. Singing! Dancing! Whimsy! Imagination! Color! Bring ’em on! I’m much more likely to become immersed in your story (rather than constantly checking my watch for two hours) if you tell your story with music. That being said, I have a soft spot for movie musicals. I have the attention span of a goldfish, so I hate consuming stories in big chunks. It’s hard for me to sit down and commit to watching a two-hour film. It is a known fact that I don’t care much for movies. I’m here to scream about my favorite movie of 2021 (and quite possibly one of the best movies I’ve ever seen), Tick, Tick… Boom! ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |